Chapter 4
Serena Slammed
To Orihime's surprise, it is not an enemy waiting for her in her hotel room. Instead, it's none other than…
"Rukia! Oh, it's so good to see you!"
Orihime rushes over and glomps Rukia. Renji walks over and shakes hands with Ichigo. Ichika also waves to Kazui.
"What are you guys doing out here?" Ichigo asks.
"Silly, we weren't letting you have all the fun!" Rukia retorts. "Renji and I also wanted to support Chad, so we brought over Ichika to get to experience the Olympic Games!"
"Ichika says she's interested in the tennis, isn't that right, Ichika?" Renji says.
Ichika looks a bit embarrassed and hides behind Renji.
"She wants to be like the American woman who's the #1 ranked player in the world. I forget her name, but I do remember that she resembles Yoruichi."
"Speaking of Yoruichi, whatever happened to her?" Ichigo wonders.
"No one's sure yet," Renji replies. "But I'm betting that she's okay."
Kazui notices Ichika feeling a bit embarrassed and walks up to her.
"You like tennis?" Kazui asks her.
"Of course, it's a cool sport!" Ichika responds.
"Hey Mama, are we going to watch a tennis match?" Kazui asks Orihime.
"Well, I-" Orihime begins.
"Relax, we got everything under control here," Rukia says, pulling out the tickets.
"Leave it to Rukia to prepare for everything," Renji adds. "She's got enough tickets for all of us. So let's go!"
"Hold on a second," Ichigo states. "Are you meaning to tell me you have no idea what is going on?"
Rukia and Renji stare at each other for a moment, then laugh.
"What the heck are you talking about?" Renji questions. "You're always so uptight, Ichigo!"
"No, it's serious," an annoyed Ichigo replies. "Kazui was kidnapped."
Renji looks over at Kazui, who is laughing with Ichika.
"Doesn't look like he's kidnapped to me."
"Idiot! An Arrancar showed up and grabbed him. I convinced her to give him back, but she's lurking around Rio. She's got spiritual pressure similar to Aizen's. She may cause something serious around here."
"So, the rumors are true," Rukia states.
"Rumors?" Orihime wonders.
"At a Captains only meeting, we got word from Captain Soi Fon that Aizen had somehow left an inheritance of his powers back in Hueco Mundo. Apparently that must be what Soi Fon was talking about."
Rukia pauses.
"If this inherited power is after Kazui, that can mean only one thing - she's got plans on something even bigger."
Kazui looks confused. "Huh?" he says.
"Let me explain," Rukia says, pulling out a piece of paper and making some terrible drawings on it. "This Arrancar has gone after Kazui, but that's not her main goal. Capturing Kazui was only a distraction. She's likely to cause other distractions as well - attacking Soul Reapers at random, perhaps. Her main goal is to free Aizen, after we're all too busy distracted by the other problems she's caused."
"I see your point," Ichigo says, "but those drawings are a piece of crap!"
"Shut up!" Rukia responds. "You're lucky Orihime has more patience than me!"
"All right, all right, enough," Renji says, stepping in. "Do you know where this Arrancar is?"
Ichigo thinks for a moment. "No, I don't," he says. "She wasn't even at Chad's first boxing match. I don't know where she could be."
"Then let's stay on high alert and be ready to fight her, but also ready for some sort of surprise," Renji states. "Because her goal isn't just to cause some little problem. She's looking for the type of distraction that would cause the Soul Society to get involved, and thus give herself a chance to free Aizen."
The two couples along with their children show up at the Olympic Tennis Centre. They take their seats in one of the higher rows in the stadium, and they begin to take in the match, watching the world's #1 female player representing the United States of America playing an opponent from Ukraine.
As they watch, Loly Aivirrne and Menoly Mallia show up outside the stadium. Menoly is holding onto a small container of three tennis balls.
"This is it," Loly whispers to Menoly. "We sneak into the stadium, trade our tennis balls for the ones they're using, and boom! Our Soul Bomb goes off."
"I'm not so sure about this, Loly…" Menoly replies in a whisper.
"Moron! Of course it'll work! I've concealed our Soul Bomb into one of those tennis balls. When the tennis player slams the ball, it will cause such a huge explosion that everyone in the stadium will be killed. The Soul Society will then have no choice but to deal with the large number of souls. And while they are, we spring Aizen!"
"I don't know, Loly," Menoly whispers. "And besides, aren't the security guards going to catch us?"
"They can't detect spiritual weapons, even if I've used a little gasoline," Loly responds. "This is going to be a piece of cake!"
So Loly and Menoly pull out fake identification badges, posing as the ball girls who run after the balls during the match. The oblivious security guards let them in, and soon Loly and Menoly find their way down to the court. Loly taps one of the real ball girls on the shoulder.
"Rotation time, you're out, I'm in," Loly tells her.
The ball girl obliges, and soon Loly and Menoly are in place as the new ball girls. Loly looks up at the scoreboard to check the situation.
Okay, the American woman is going to serve, Loly thinks. Time to spring the trap.
Ichika and Kazui are laughing and talking about the match, when Ichigo suddenly notices the ball girls.
"Look!" he tells Orihime, Rukia and Renji. "Loly and Menoly are the ball girls!"
Rukia gasps, while Renji looks angry. "What the heck do they have planned?"
Loly pulls out the ball with the Soul Bomb, and she hands it over to the American woman. The American tennis player takes the ball, throws it up, then smashes a hard serve with the ball.
Yes! Here it comes! Loly thinks.
However, the player's serve is off, and it goes right into the net. The Soul Bomb fails to diffuse properly, and it peters out as it catches the net on fire.
"Hey! What the heck is going on here?" the umpire shouts.
The American player is so frustrated, she slams her racket in frustration, breaking it. Officials storm onto the scene, some of them putting out the fire in the net, while others take a look at the faulty ball. Loly and Menoly quickly scatter away, while Ichigo and pals look on in utter confusion.
"What the heck just happened?" Ichigo wonders.
The public address announcer addresses the crowd.
"For the sake of safety, we are postponing this match. Please make your way to the exits quickly and quietly, in a safe and calm manner. Thank you."
Ichigo and pals head on out of the stadium, but not before Ichigo catches a glimpse of Loly escaping out an emergency exit.
These losers… Ichigo thinks. What do they have in mind?
The Kurosaki family and Abarai family head back to their hotel room, where they turn on the television to find out information about the match.
"In a stunning development, the #1 player in the world out of the United States of America ended up losing her match today to Ukraine! She ended up being distracted by a faulty ball that somehow caught the net on fire. She was out of rhythm the rest of the match and ended up losing in straight sets. It is a stunning loss for her, after winning three straight Grand Slams last year…"
"That's enough!" Renji yells, shutting off the TV.
Everyone pauses, wondering what to do.
"Loly has something planned," Rukia states. "I don't know what exactly, but even though her plan fizzled out today, she's going to come back with something bigger."
"And we're going to stop it before it starts," Ichigo replies. "I already promised her a battle. Maybe I just need to move up that battle a little sooner."
"Just be safe," Orihime tells Ichigo with a kiss.
"No problem," Ichigo replies. "We'll go at it after Chad's second-round fight tomorrow."
Meanwhile, Loly is blaming Menoly for the failed mission.
"You moron! You put too much gasoline into it and not enough spiritual pressure!"
"I'm sorry! I'm not experienced with making Soul Bombs!"
"Eh, it doesn't matter anyway. That wouldn't have made a big enough explosion. We need a bigger ball! Something that will explode on impact and blow everyone away!"
Menoly thinks about it for a moment. "I'm not sure which ball would be best. A handball? A water polo ball? A volleyball?"
"That's it, a volleyball!" Loly exclaims. "We make our next Soul Bomb a volleyball, then blow it up on the beach with that whole stadium watching. And then I'll finish off Ichigo. This will be so perfect!"
Loly rushes off to start making preparations for the next Soul Bomb, while Menoly trails behind, shaking her head as she goes.
"The winner of the second-round match… by decision… from the blue corner, from Mexico, Yasutora Sado!"
Chad raises his arms in celebration, and Ichigo, Orihime, and Kazui applaud from the back of the arena.
"Hey, where are Ichika and her parents?" Kazui wonders.
Ichigo then notices Rukia, Renji and Ichika cheering from the front row.
"What?! Those guys got front-row seats and just left us to sit in the back?"
"It's okay, Ichigo," Orihime says, kissing him on the cheek.
Ichigo gathers himself.
"Well, that's another win for Chad," Ichigo says. "And one more win closer to finishing off Loly Aivirrne."
To Be Continued...